To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed the entire object, paste this HTML in websiteTo link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed this page, paste this HTML in website

Constitution of the Brotherhood of the Co-operative Commonwealth, ca. 1898

E. B. "Harry" Ault (1883-1961) was a journalist and a prominent member of the socialist and labor movements in Washington state. In 1898, when Ault was in his teens, his family relocated from Kentucky to Washington state, where they joined the Equality Colony, a commune operated by the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth, which was located near Edison in Skagit County. Ault became editor of the colony's newspaper, "Industrial Freedom", later that year. Ault lived at Equality Colony for two years, after which he left for Seattle in 1900 to found a newspaper called "The Young Socialist". Ault had become involved in Eugene Debs' Social Democratic Party, and would join the new Socialist Party in 1901.

After a decade of prominent involvement in the Socialist Party, particularly working for the newspaper "The Socialist" and its publisher, Hermon Titus, Ault left the socialists for the more "mainstream" labor movement, working as the secretary of the Central Labor Council of Seattle from 1909 to 1913. In 1912, he took over the editorship of the council's newspaper, the Seattle Union Record, which he edited until the paper's termination in 1928. In connection with his work as editor, he collected and saved many documents relating to the growth and activism of the labor movement in the Pacific Northwest. He then worked as a commercial printer, until re-entering active involvement in politics in 1936, when he ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Congress from the 1st Congressional District -- a race he lost to Warren G. Magnuson. Ault was appointed a deputy U.S. Marshal for Tacoma, Washington in 1938, a position he held until his retirement 15 years later.